05/26/07

Community and Growth

"So confess your sins to one another and pray for one another so that you may be healed. The prayer of a righteous person has great effectiveness." James 5:16

  As I think of community,  there are a few things that seem to stick out to me. I see community as a place of challenge: you are challenged to submit, to accept suffering, to live simply, to humble yourself, to obey, to identify your own cry and the cry of others; a place where fear, anxiety, and your own feelings of vulnerability will just overwhelm you sometimes. We hear sad stories  about children’s life experiences and we begin to feel sad, or we see their needs and we fear, either because we don’t know how to handle them, or their cry might reveal our cry, and that’s kind of scary or even painful. I find community as a wonderful place, but is it a safe place of growth?

  I can hear their stories, I can see their ways of living, and feel broken, or feel pity for them...but, how do I help them? They seem not to need my brokenness. As I listen to them talking, with simple words, about experiences from their lives, I sense a voice that never had the chance to express it’s feelings, I see sadness in their weepy eyes, and feel the pain in their voices, or sometimes I even feel angry with them  for revealing my own fears, feelings of insecurity or pain.  So, is brokenness enough? I would say it is not. It is indeed a responsibility in ministry among the broken, but it is not enough.

  Jesus took the bread, broke it and give it to the others to eat. We are His body; life given, this is what brings life, because when we give, we receive; and if I give everything, it will be enough for everyone. So, here comes the challenge - we live in a society where we are influenced to possess things, more that we can or should have, a society that tells your "needs": a house, a car, a mobile phone, internet, shopping, alcohol, materials for construction, a microwave, washing machine, fashion, vacation, clubs, insurance, credit cards, avon products, furniture...( all of these are on billboards that I saw one morning while going to work, in a distance of 30 yards).In some way or another we are influenced by these "billboards"(we need to identify the "billboards" in our life). So, how do I stop all these billboards from affecting or influencing me? I would prefer to keep silent here, and let every one of you hear the answer out of silence.  I will end with these words:

 

" The poor admit their need of redemption, they admit their dependence on God and powerful people; they practice the presence of God as an act of living, they depend on people and not on material things, they know how to give and how to receive, they know how to discern between luxury and necessity, their fears are more realistic, and less exaggerated because they know what it means to live in poverty. We among them, are called to repentance"
(by David Chronic)